Thursday, November 24, 2005

Blessed Katiyo Richard Dyantyi, the Western Cape local government and housing minister, has called for a sustainable human settlement summit to be held. The aim is to alleviate the housing crisis in the province.

The summit, bringing together a number of stakeholders, among them communities, business construction sector companies, academics, housing practitioners and government representatives, will be held to discuss housing issues in the province.“We are going to be demonstrating pilot projects that have important key features for us some supported by employers others driven by government itself others cross subsidized,” said Dyantyi.

The province has a serious housing backlog and the minister hopes discussions at the summit will help ease problems in housing administration. Some of the problems include industrialists who refused to have new housing communities in their vicinities. The minister was optimistic that such red-tape will be removed.